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Friday, April 08, 2005

Off His Nut: DeLay's Impending Doom

The Peach knows the smell of a seriously wounded jackal, and Tom DeLay is really beginning to stink up the place. The New York Times is reporting that DeLay is once again launching a lunatic-like attack against the federal court system. His most recent rantings include such gems worthy of a Congressional psycho-ward as faulting courts for inventing rights to abortion and that the standards and precedents held by the courts were "not examples of a mature society, but of a judiciary run amok." This even after Supreme Court Chief Justice Rehnquist stated that Congressional interference in the Terry Schiavo case had been "unwarranted and ill-considered."

Of course, we all know that DeLay is simply reaching for any rope to pull himself out of the ethical quicksand that is slowly consuming him. Investigators are now looking into trips DeLay and his family took to the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas in 1997, coordinated by the lobby firm of Preston, Gates, Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds, which the Commonwealth retained in 1996. According to an article by CounterPunch, the more than $2 million junkets, paid for by Commonwealth taxpayers, were intended to persuade Congress to abandon its attempts to impose federal minimum wage and improved working conditions, even though the islands are a U.S. territory and the residents have American citizenship. Working conditions were so bad in the Northern Marianas that in 1995 the Philippine government placed a ban on any of their workers going there. On one of his visits there DeLay was quoted as saying that raising the minimum wage would "destroy the lives of the people" and to "Stand firm. Resist evil."

And now, lo and behold, the Seattle Times is reporting that investigators are looking into D.C. lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his work for Preston, Gates. Apparently, the Northern Marianas trips had been coordinated by Abramoff and paid for by two Preston, Gates clients. Abramoff also directly billed some of DeLay's expenses to Preston, Gates. It also seems that payments made for lobbying work done by Abramoff and Preston, Gates on behalf of the sweatshops, were done so illegally and paid without a valid contract. DeLay visited the Northern Marianas at the behest of Abrammoff, but The Peach doubts Tom met with any of the 84-hour work week, $3 per hour employees. Still, the Preston firm earned a cool $6.7 million for its lobbying efforts.

So, The Peach feels Tom DeLay can ramble on about how all of his apparent misfortunes are just another "seedy attempt by the liberal media to embarass me." The cliches synonomous with finality are oozing through The Peach's fuzzy veneer. The fat lady is singing loud and clear, Tom. The jig is up. The party's over. You can run, but you can't hide.